By Madelyn Lipszyc

It is not uncommon for many people to live without electricity and sanitation in Africa and other undeveloped countries around the world. Many countries just don't have the money, tools or know-how to construct hydroelectric power.

Students from Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering have formed a program called the Humanitarian Engineering Leadership Program (HELP), which, according to their mission statement, "addresses the development needs of the third world with solutions that are fully sustainable using local materials with a low environmental impact."

Through this program, some students have traveled to a small town called Banda in Rwanda to help implement micro-hydroelectric turbines for electricity. They used a local water source and brought the first turbine assembled from the US. The second turbine, however, was made from local components, so they do not have to rely on importing foreign parts. The second turbine can produce 300 watts of energy. According to Larry Greenemeier of Scientific American, "The students plan to, with help from the locals, upgrade the sites over time to improve their output to 1.5 kilowatts, enough meet all of the village's electrical needs and more."

Hydroelectric power is a big step up for a country that is heavily reliant on kerosene for lighting and power. Kerosene, like oil, is unpredictable, dirty and unsustainable in the long run. Also, kerosene will eventually cost more and be harder for the local residents to control. Hydroelectric power can be a big project but can be continually upgraded; more turbines can be built and it can stimulate the local economy, possibly even creating jobs.

If you visit Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering's HELP website, you can browse their current projects. They explain their Rwanda Micro Hydro project as being "a rural electrification pilot one, designed to test the efficacy of small, locally manufactured hydro-electric systems…with the goals of being simple to use, inexpensive, and sustainable." You can donate and find more information on their projects at www.dartmouthhelp.org.

What makes hydroelectric power so promising in third world countries like Rwanda is that there are a lot of benefits and very few disadvantages. Hydropower does not cause greenhouse gases or emissions. There is very little pollution released to the atmosphere with this type of energy extraction. It is ideal compared to power sources that produce carbon monoxide emissions, like coal oil and natural gas. It is a renewable resource and is very inexpensive to buy compared to the latter forms of power.

There are a few disadvantages to hydroelectricity; however, they are acceptable because this type of power is cleaner overall and can be easy and inexpensive to purchase and maintain by local residents. It is theorized that the building of a small dam can cause interruption in the natural flow of a river and possibly cause silt buildup, limiting the life of the reservoir. Also, some believe that damming can cause certain species of fish to stop migrating and interfere with plant life. In retrospect, though, these disadvantages happen more often with a larger dam for a big city, rather than a small turbine for local use.

HELP has hit the nail on the head with green energy because they have tried to utilize local and recycled materials to build the turbines. Micro-hydroelectric power can keep on giving for generations, as long as rain falls and its water flows. This could also lead to the regulation and possibly sanitization of unclean water. Two Micro-hydroelectric turbines now provide electricity to residents in Banda, thanks to the students at Thayer school of Engineering at Dartmouth.